A Thousand Ages

A Thousand Ages is the title of my latest Petal release - while the phrase is from an old hymn, my use is inspired by Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, a sci-fi classic which begins with a quote from the hymn.

For several years I've been working on tunes which capture my impressions of the book, and have finally got them into some sort of shape and order which feels release-worthy. Featuring some beautiful cover art courtesy of Richard PJ Lambert, the whole thing is freely available from the Rusted Sun Collective at Bandcamp:



The original Double Pinhole Solargraph image used for the artwork is available from Mr. Lambert's flikr stream at https://flic.kr/p/s817GW. Additional information about the artists is also available at http://www.richardpjlambert.com/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/auspices/.

Enjoy!

The Rusted Sun Collective - Communicate

I've been working for some time on some collaborations with TonePoet (Thomas Lindsey), and am happy to promote this release, which features the tune For the Fathers We Never Found. The song is sort of a test bed that we developed to figure out what a collaboration would look and sound like, and I'm absolutely pleased with the result. The tune and the complete EP are available for free (or "name your price") download over at Rusted Sun's Bandcamp site.

For more info, please head over. Regarding the artwork, with much appreciation the picture "Fresh Air" was created by Caras Ionut, who has provided permission for us to use the image as artwork for this song. You can find more of Caras' artwork at www.carasdesign.com. Please be sure to visit, and thank you Caras!

The Transgender Muleskinner Diaspora - Straw Men Don't Chase Tornadoes

A trial run of Bandcamp and a lo-fi release from my alter-ego self that strives for relaxing, melodic tunes. All these tunes started out as sample and loop pools for sound design, and I just grew attached to them.

Illumination - Harmony & Decay

I was directed to Illumination, a name-your-price Bandcamp release, by a comment on this blog from Thomas Lindsey, one half of the duo Harmony & Decay. One of the great things about being involved in the netlabel, podcast and ambient/experimental/noise scene is the serendipity of hearing from other musicians who are barking up the same or some similar tree, and I'm just sorry this review may come a little late to do much good for an October 2012 release.

Reading over the duo's website after listening to Illumination a couple of times, I was not surprised to learn that Harmony & Decay is the experimental project of two professional musicians exploring minimalism as an alternative to the more structured and note-intensive styles they encounter in their day jobs, or, as expressed on their website, a means getting "back to the basic roots of sound, as opposed to notes." This is a feeling shared by a lot of us, but what I really like about their work is the fact that much of their sound is notes. That is, though the tracks on Illumination reveal a lot of thoughtful sound design techniques incorporating tasteful bits of glitch and (probably) some field recordings, what really stands out to me is the sense of a restrained melodic impulse underpinning each of the tunes. "Burning Sky" and "As the Phantom Breeze Whispers" in particular evolve on top of spaciously beguiling phrases, with "Burning Sky" being for me the standout track on the release.

Another facet of the release which speaks to the duo's professionalism and breadth of musical experience is the tastefulness of the arrangements. These pieces are not the effects-heavy walls of sound that one so often encounters in the realm of dark ambient soundscapes, but instead communicate a thoughtful, deep and thoroughly conceived approach to actual minimalism. Taken together, these characteristics of Illumination make it remarkable for being simultaneously inventive and refreshingly straight forward, and I look forward to hearing more from Harmony & Decay.

New Binaural Banjo Episode

I posted a tune this evening over at my alter-ego site, to which I think I should go ahead and own up. It's kind of the airy, melodic light ambient side of my musical self. Like Prince in his Spooky Electric phase or whatever. Anyway, the companion blog is the Binaural Banjo, and I've been at it since 2007 so there's a lot of stuff up there, some of which is kind of noisy and experimental and should appeal to folks who like my darker drone music. Plus all the tunes have binaural beats for meditative effects and make pretty good headphone listening at low volumes. I enjoy it a lot and those who don't know about it might like it, too.

The mp3 includes embedded artwork.

Sunstroke

Occlusion

Almost there. Maybe a couple more to post tomorrow. Click to listen or right click to download.

Occlusion

Olivine

Another from Prosthetic Frequencies. Click to listen or right click to download.

Olivine